Turn Tricks for Treats with the Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop #TrickorTreatDogs

You all know how much I love giveaways. They are so much fun! Although I can’t enter my own giveaways (which is a bummer for big ones like this) I enjoy every part of giving my readers a chance to collect some fantastic prizes. Last year I participated in the Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop presented by Kol’s Notes and Beagles & Bargains, and I’m stoked to be a part of it again! Just like last year’s giveaway hop, you will learn tricks to teach your dog and potentially win prizes! How does it get any better than that?! Without further adieu, I now present our Halloween gift to you…

The Trick or Treat Giveaway Hop is sponsored by Caru, Nature’s Logic, and The Honest Kitchen.

How the Giveaway Hop Works

Below this post is a widget you fill out to enter the giveaway. You will be asked to perform simple tasks such as following each blog on a social media platform. The widget will take you through step by step! Then you can click on all of the blogs I have listed below our trick to see their fun trick and enter into their widget. It’s easy, it’s fun and it’s educational! The more blogs you enter to win on, the bigger your chances are to win – so be sure to visit every blog! The giveaway hop runs October 20-30th.

Our Trick: Teach Your Dog to Spin Left and Right

Teaching your dog to “spin” is a pretty simple trick. With Khloee’s assistance, I’m going to show you how to teach your dog not only to spin, but to spin left or right. Take a look at the video first.

Now here’s a step-by-step:

Make sure you have lots of treats for positive reinforcement training. Positive reinforcement training methods are by far the most effective. When training my dogs I like to have a treat pouch attached to my pants so I can easily access the treats

Your dog can begin in a sit or stand. Whatever they are most comfortable with.

Take a treat and put it right in front of your dog’s nose. Keep your hand and treat close to your dog and turn your arm in a big left or right circle. As soon as your dog does a complete circle, give them the treat! The idea is to have your dog follow the hand with the treat in it. Try it with your dog spinning left and right. Khloee can do both but Wynston can’t seem to figure out how to turn right.

Positively reinforce this behavior as necessary. Lots of treats and praise is always good.

Once your dog gets comfortable following your hand in a circular motion, circle your hand in the air above their head. You still want your dog to be following your treat hand so they turn in a circle. Now treat, treat, treat your dog.

As your dog gets better at following your hand, you can make your hand movements smaller and smaller as shown in the video above.

You can add the words “left” and “right” after your dog is consistently following your hand and performing the spin.

After repeating these behaviors with lots of treat rewards, eventually you will be able to tell your dog “left” or “right” and they will spin that way!

Increase your chances to win!

I encourage you to head to the following blogs to increase your chances of winning! Each site has a different trick that you can teach your dog as well! Remember, the more blogs you enter on, the bigger your chances are to win 🙂 Giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada. Good luck and have fun!

my oldest knows lots of tricks, she was a very fast learner, the 2 younger girls know a few, it takes time and being consistent to train to do tricks. my oldest could prance, roll over and play dead, dance, shake, etc. the 2 younger girls just do the normal ones, except the youngest can talk and curl up her lip. i used treats and worked with them on a daily basis. i need to work more with the 2 younger girls.

So cute, Khloee looks like a natural! Spin is Luke’s absolutely favorite trick I think. When he gets confused sometimes when training new tricks, he’ll fall back to spinning (or backing up). It’s so funny! We trained spin first, to the right, and then added “twirl” later for to the left. I wish I’d done both at the same time, it would have been easier. I don’t know if it’s because he learned spin first, or because he’s more comfortable going that direction, but he definitely has a preference.

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Meet Amanda!

Full time pet blogger & creative writer planning RV life on the road with my dog and three cats. Mom to a PetSmart model, animal rescue worker, Coca-Cola addict, AZ Diamondbacks fan for life and speaker for those without a voice. Email me at amanda@dogmomdays.com